Creative Writing Before and During Inspeximus - Plymouth and South Devon

I founded Plymouth Proprietary Library Writers Group in 2009.  A literary diamond in the city which doesn't get the attention it deserves.  However, working full time means that any voluntary work (i.e. for library committee ... read unpaid charity work ... and the rapidly growing PPL Writers Group) is limited.  I gave up sitting on the library committee as certain traditional ideas were different to mine.  Never mind; we all move on.  The Plymouth Proprietary Library Writers Group apparently continues to thrive and has now moved into the Plymouth Arts Centre.  I sincerely wish them well.  I rarely spend much time in Plymouth these days unless I have to.

Occasionally I dabble with competitions for poetry and short stories.  Admittedly not as often as I would like to, as the day job gets in the way.  A brief summary of results found in my shambolic filing system is as follows:

2010         National Association of Writers Groups        Runner Up for the Ten Minute Radio Play
with:  THE LAIRA QUATRAIN   (Play)

2010         Delivered Magazine                                  
with:  AN ODE TO WOOLWORTHS (Poem)

2010         Graffiti Short Story Competition                    Shortlisted
with:  GOING HOME (Short Story)

2011         The Herald Plymouth
with:  POETRY PUBLISHED

2011         Poetry Rivals 2011
with:  A CLOCK STRIKES THIRTEEN (Poem)

2012         West Country Writers Association                 Third Prize - event held in Bath, Somerset.
with:  CONTINUUM (Short Story)

2012         Write Around Totnes
with:  THE TOTNES ODYSSEY (Poem)

2012         The Stephen Spender Prize for Translation
with:  THEOCRITUS - (Translation of a pattern poem from the original Classical Greek into contemporary English)                                                     Commended by Professor Edith Hall

2013        United Press
with:  SUNRISE OVER LAIRA MILL (Poem)

2013        EXCite Poetry Festival of Exeter
with:  FORMULA ONE FERN (Poem)                          Shortlisted

2013       Literature Works
with:  NUMBERS (Poem)                                               Published on Literature Works website

2013       Wells Festival of Literature                              Shortlisted
with:  PTERIDOMANIA (Short Story)

2014       The Great British Write Off
with:  RIVER ERME:  DEVON (Poem)

2014      The Yeovil Literary Prize                                  Commended by Judge Annie Freud
with:  FORMULA ONE FERN (Poem)

2014      Fylde Brighter Writers Competition
with:  COFFEE (Poem)                                                   Shortlisted

2015      The Sentinel Annual Short Story Competition  Second Prize
with:  JAIL GRAIL (Short Story)

2015      Carillon Magazine                                             Shortlisted
with:  MISTAKEN IDENTITY (Short Story)


Top Tip:  never take entering competitions seriously.  As someone who has been involved in the judging process, choosing a winner isn't easy and will vacillate considerably depending on who is in your panel of judges.  Supporting competitions as and when you can is important for creative writing as a whole.  But then, not easy for those of us working full time ... so just treat it as a fun hobby but nothing more.

Inspeximus:  Poetry from the Manors of the Roborough Hundred was written over a long period of time and I had no deadline to publish it by, so it was possible to write on other themes occasionally.